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Roadtripping through WA’s heart

Stephen Scourfield suggests an easy, picturesque round trip from Perth.

From red to blue. From dust to sand. From the inland to the coast.

This is the suggestion for an easy drive that will give you an inside and out view of WA ... a drive that will take you up its red veins and back down the golden skin of its beach, looking out at blue.

More specifically, it will take you north of Perth through agricultural lands to Mullewa on up a good red-gravel roadto Gascoyne Junction, out to the coast at Carnarvon and back south through Kalbarri.

Up the inside; down the outside. WA, inside out, in one easy bite.

And what might you be driving? A “softroader”, an all-wheel-drive, the family sedan; staying in accommodation, camping, or towing a caravan — just about anything, really.

That’s the point of this drive — it’s for just about everyone.

The fastest I’d want to do this loop is ...

Day 1: Perth to Mullewa

Day 2: Mullewa to Gascoyne Junction

Day 3: Gascoyne Junction to Carnarvon and Monkey Mia

Day 4: Monkey Mia to Kalbarri

Day 5: Kalbarri to Geraldton and Perth

... but, of course, this is just the bare framework — the idea is that you build in extra time and nights wherever you fancy.

ON THE ROAD

We have headed out of Perth’s metropolitan area on Great Northern Highway and, just after Bindoon, wriggled left and right on to the Bindoon Moora Road through Moora, and straight on, on The Midlands Road, to Coorow, just under 300km from Perth.

From there through Carnamah, Three Springs and Mingenew is another 100km or so. It is just over 80km on to Mullewa, on the Mingenew Mullewa Road.

We might have stopped early, perhaps at the Mingenew Springs Caravan Park or the renovated Mingenew Commercial Hotel. But here at Mullewa, it might be the Mullewa Caravan Park or The Brand. Tonight it’s the Railway Hotel Motel in Gray Street.

Don’t just rush through Mullewa. The town was settled in the 1850s and has been a rural hub since. The railway came in 1894 and it became the rail node for the Central West.

It also has some interesting buildings by architect priest Monsignor John Hawes. Monsignor Hawes was the first resident priest in Mullewa, in the 1920s, and designed the Church of our Lady of Mt Carmel and the Holy Apostles St Peter and St Paul, and Priest House (now the Priesthouse Museum).

From Mullewa it is about 230km up the Carnarvon Mullewa Road to Murchison Settlement.

I like what some of us have always called “the Murchison Roadhouse Road”. You’re in the red dirt. The road is unsealed, gravel and dust, but generally good. Around August and September, this can be great wildflower country.

The Loop, Kalbarri National Park. Picture: Greg Snell

You’ll pass Pindaring Rocks, Greenough River, Tallering Peak, and past the great pastoralist stations of Tallering, Wandina and Bullardoo.

Before Murchison Settlement you’ll also encounter these high reaches of the Murchison River, and you will pass Bilga Rock.

Better still, if you have time, spend the night at the Oasis Roadhouse motel and caravan park at Murchison Settlement, by Errabiddy Bluff.

From Murchison Settlement, you can even build in a side-trip and drive on north-east to Wooleen Station up the Twin Peaks to Wooleen Road. Wooleen is a cattle station playing a role in preserving the region’s ecology. It has a homestead, guesthouse and camping accommodation.

If you just push on with our drive loop, from Murchison Settlement it is another 260km (allow at least three hours) to Gascoyne Junction. Still in the red dirt but on a good country road.

But before you go straight on through, I’d like you to do one thing for me ... just pull over by the side of the road about 35km north of Murchison Settlement (somewhere around where Muggon Road takes off to the west) and consider this ...

You are sitting in a region near Mt Narryer Station, in an area where rocks containing some of the oldest zircon crystals on Earth were found. I was there with some of the world’s leading planetary evolution geochemists, at Mt Narryer and the adjacent Jack Hills, as they were dated back to 4.4 billion years.

There may be equally old material under the ice of Antarctica and Siberia, and in one of the most inhospitable pockets of South America, but at this turn-off to Mt Narryer and Jack Hills, NASA scientists have told me, you are close to an example of planetary evolution that reveals more about the process than space programs to the Moon and Mars.

So, it’s worth pulling over and having a cup of tea from that flask, surely.

Now, on to Gascoyne Junction. On the Gascoyne River, this has long been a hub for sheep and wheat stations. There is a museum, a pub, The Junction Hotel. There are also some great picnic spots around Gascoyne Junction.

Just over 10km away is Bidgemia Station.

From Gascoyne Junction to Carnarvon is about 175km.

Carnarvon is a good spot to stop, perhaps staying in the Best Western Carnarvon or one of the many caravan parks.

Enjoy the curve of the Fascine waterfront and then head over to the back beach and heritage precinct around One Mile Jetty, and then on to Pelican Point Reserve.

Monkey Mia Jetty. Picture: Tourism WA

If you drive on down North West Coastal Highway from Carnarvon and then, 195km south, turn west on to Shark Bay Road, it’s about 155km to Monkey Mia — a “side-trip” off our main route. To stay out there, spend the night at Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort.

Alternatively, straight through from Carnarvon to Kalbarri is 450km. (From Gascoyne Junction to Kalbarri via Carnarvon is 625km — probably too full a day’s driving for some.)

Where are we now? Well, past the Overland and Billabong roadhouses, we find ourselves turning off North West Coastal Highway to Kalbarri — from “red” to “blue”.

The red coastal bluffs around Kalbarri, set against that deep ocean, are a striking contrast of colour; of wet against dry.

Accommodation ranges from very good hotels to caravan parks. Places to eat, spots to picnic, and the drama of the rock and river.

From Kalbarri you are about 590km from Perth, coming south down North West Coastal Highway through Northampton, Geraldton, Greenough and Dongara — all worth spending time in, and all part of completing that picture, from red to blue, from dust to sand ... of seeing a vignette of WA, from inside and out.

FACT FILE

For planning in these areas, go to australiascoralcoast.com.au.

Mingenew Springs Caravan Park: mingenewspringscaravanpark.com and 9928 1019.

Mingenew Commercial Hotel: 9928 1001.

Mullewa Tourism: mullewatourism.com.au

Mullewa Community Resource Centre (Tourist Bureau): mullewa.crc.net.au and 9961 1500.

The Brand, Mullewa: Bookings through CRC on 9961 1500.

Mullewa Caravan Park: Caravans and camping; no onsite vans or chalets and no advance bookings — just book in at Yarrumba Service Station, Jose Street, when you arrive in Mullewa.

Mullewa Railway Hotel Motel: 9961 1050.

Mullewa’s Monsignor Hawes Priest House Museum: Open to the public Monday to Friday. Call 9961 1166 to arrange.

Murchison Oasis Roadhouse and Caravan Park: Carnarvon Mullewa Road. 9961 3875.

Wooleen Station: wooleen.com.au and 9963 7973.

Bidgemia Station, Gascoyne Junction: 9943 0501.

Carnarvon Visitor Centre: carnarvon.org.au and 9941 1146.

Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort: monkeymia.com.au and 9948 1320.

Kalbarri Visitor Centre: kalbarri.org.au and 1800 639 468.

Geraldton Visitor Centre: geraldtonvisitorcentre.com.au and 9921 3999.